Background Finnish working-class women took a more active role in society beginning in the late 1800s, most notably in the suffrage movement which began during the 1890s. Women took part in the organisation of
conscription strikes as part of the movement against the
Russification of Finland from the early 1900s, and female labourers played a major role in the 1905
general strike. Although Finnish women gained the right to vote in 1906 (second in the world), women's social status lagged behind that of men; a married woman was under her husband's authority and could not have a job without his permission. The condition of working-class women was much worse than that of middle-class women, and the situation for maids and servants was especially poor. Under the 1865 Imperial Servant Act they lived in slave-like conditions, often experiencing sexual abuse. Child labour was legal in Finland until the 1920s. The
Finnish Civil War was a conflict from 27 January to 15 May 1918 for the leadership and control of
Finland during the country's transition from a
Grand Duchy of the
Russian Empire to an independent state. The clashes took place in the context of
the national, political, and social turmoil caused by
World War I. The civil war was fought between the
Reds, led by a section of the
Social Democratic Party, and the
Whites, controlled by the
conservative-based
Senate. The
paramilitary Red Guards, were largely made up of industrial and agrarian workers and controlled the cities and industrial centres of southern Finland. The paramilitary
White Guards consisted of farmers, along with middle-class and upper-class social strata, and controlled rural central and northern Finland.
Formation Women's Guard, which fought the Germans in the
Kyminlinna Fort The first Women's Guards units, formed in early February in
Helsinki,
Vyborg and
Valkeakoski, were modelled on the
Women's Battalions of the 1917
Russian Revolution. At first, the
Red government, the Red Guard staff and the anti-militarist Social Democratic Women's Union opposed the formation of the women's units. On 13 March, the Red government recognized existing units but ended the formation of new units. Its order was not strictly observed, however, and some new units were still formed in late March and early April in the largest industrial portions of Red-controlled Finland; with few exceptions, they were not formed in rural areas. Some women served in combat units, and others were assigned to support duties. The armed women received brief military training from Red Guard leaders. At first, they did guard duty, but in late March they began to be sent to the front. , one of the few formed in the countryside, was composed of local maids. The core of the Women's Guards were radical women who wanted to create a more egalitarian society and improve the status of women. The women cut their hair short and wore unconventional clothing, often rejecting skirts and dresses in favour of trousers (worn only by men at the time). Their rejection of traditional values earned the enmity of the Finnish Whites because the working women did not fit the roles of conservative, middle-class society. According to historian
Ohto Manninen, the total was 2,000. According to an upcoming 2017 book by historian
Tuomas Hoppu, there were at least 2,600 members— more than three percent of the 80,000 Red Guard fighters. Thousands of other women also supported the Red Guards. The
Political Offence Court accused more than 5,500 women of being Reds after the war ended in May 1918, a fraction of the total. Although 4,000 of the accused were convicted of treason, all except some of the leadership were pardoned in October 1918.
Public attitudes By joining the Red Guards, women stepped out of their traditional role in Finnish society. They were perceived as a threat by the conservative Finnish Whites, who considered them immoral, unfeminine women unfit for the roles of wife and mother. During the war, unsubstantiated rumours were spread about Red Guard women; according to White newspapers, the Reds tortured all their prisoners and castrated some. Only one woman is known to have participated in White executions, despite the fact that over 1,600 people were killed in the
Red terror. Red nurses working in field hospitals were mocked as "sisters of love", implying that they were prostitutes. Animosity toward Red women was so harsh that they were often dehumanized and demonized. A well-known outburst was made by Finnish author
Ilmari Kianto, who called Red women "wolf bitches" who should be exterminated. According to a
Hufvudstadsbladet article, Red women should not be treated as prisoners of war but should be "chased into the woods like animals". Another newspaper,
Aamulehti, called them the "lowest scum" who must be cleansed from Finnish society. Archbishop
Gustaf Johansson said that Red women must be left "in the hands of Satan" and not helped in any way.
Executions of Tampere. A woman with her breasts exposed is in the front of the picture. About 420 to 460 members of the Women's Guards were executed during the final stages of the war. The largest mass executions took place in Lahti, where 20,000–30,000 fleeing Reds were captured by German and White troops at the end of April. The largest single execution in Lahti was carried out on 9 May, when at least 100 Red women were shot. According to the diary of German officer Hans Tröbst, they were shot with a machine gun in the woods near the
Hennala Garrison; according to Tröbst, the surrounding trees were spattered with brain tissue. Women wearing men's clothing, such as trousers or a military outfit, were commonly considered armed fighters and summarily shot. Women tried to get rid of their trousers, and sometimes wore nothing but underpants as they were picked from a crowd of captured Reds. Not all those executed belonged to the Women's Guards. Victims included women who had joined the fleeing refugees, some of whom were pregnant or mothers of small children. The youngest girls shot were 14 years old. The women executed in Lahti came from the provinces of
Häme,
Turku and Pori and
Uusimaa, primarily from
Alastaro,
Forssa,
Hyvinkää,
Hämeenlinna, Lahti,
Loimaa,
Maaria,
Mäntsälä,
Pori and
Turku. == Largest units ==